Founder's Checklist · Singapore
How to Open a Café in Singapore — The 2026 Founder's Checklist
A sequenced checklist for opening a café in Singapore in 2026: ACRA incorporation, the SFA Food Shop Licence, WSQ food safety training, MOM quota, IRAS GST and InvoiceNow, POS and payment rails, delivery listings, loyalty from day one, and estimated opening costs.
By Alvin Koh · Published July 25, 2026 · Fees and links last checked September 16, 2026
Direct answer · updated
As of September 2026, opening a café in Singapore runs in this order: incorporate with ACRA, secure premises that can be licensed, apply for the SFA Food Shop Licence through GoBusiness, put every food handler through the WSQ food safety course, register with CPF and check MOM quota before hiring, choose a POS and payment rails, list on the delivery platforms still operating here, and launch loyalty on opening day.
PEKO ecosystem
LOOP runs the venue. PEKO brings the customer back. Two products, one company.
PEKO — the AI customer-retention platform (heypeko.com) from the same company as LOOP. PEKO handles retention; LOOP handles operations.
| LOOP — operations | PEKO — retention |
|---|---|
| Inventory & recipes | Churn prediction |
| Shift & staff management | Automated win-back |
| Table layout | Member portal |
| Kitchen display (KDS) | Loyalty tiers |
| E-invoice (TT78) | Receipt OCR enrolment |
| Aggregator queue (GrabFood / ShopeeFood / Be) |
LOOP and PEKO each work on their own. Run both and the data syncs into one single AI brain, so nothing is entered twice. PEKO is not a POS and does not replace one — it also runs alongside any other POS.
TL;DR — verdict by use case
- • Incorporate on ACRA BizFile: S$15 for the name application, S$300 to register, S$60 for the annual return. You need a director ordinarily resident in Singapore and a company secretary within six months.
- • The SFA Food Shop Licence costs S$195 a year, is applied for through GoBusiness and is tied to a specific address — make your lease conditional on it.
- • Every food handler must complete the WSQ Food Safety Course Level 1 before handling food; the course is about S$150 before GST and heavily subsidised for eligible Singaporeans and PRs.
- • GST registration is compulsory above S$1 million of taxable turnover. InvoiceNow is being phased in from 1 November 2025 for newly incorporated voluntary registrants, with the first compulsory wave for new registrants on 1 April 2028 — check your own dates with IRAS.
- • Plan for an estimated S$250,000–S$600,000 all-in for a 30–60 seat café, with rent and fit-out driving the spread. These are planning ranges, not quotes.
- • Deliveroo ceased Singapore operations on 4 March 2026, so your delivery plan is GrabFood and foodpanda. Decide loyalty before opening day rather than in month six.
This is a sequenced checklist rather than an inspirational essay. Work down it in order: several licence decisions cannot be undone once the lease is signed, and the SFA will not licence premises that were never designed for food preparation.
Every regulatory step links to the authority that actually issues the thing, so you can confirm the current fee yourself. Money ranges are estimates for planning, and they are labelled as such.
1. Incorporate with ACRA
Register the entity on ACRA's BizFile portal. A private limited company costs S$15 for the name application and S$300 to register, with a S$60 annual return each year after. You need at least one director ordinarily resident in Singapore and a company secretary appointed within six months.
Do this before you negotiate seriously on a unit — the lease, the licence and the bank account all sit under the entity.
2. SFA Food Shop Licence
The Singapore Food Agency issues the Food Shop Licence through GoBusiness Licensing. It costs S$195 a year and is tied to a specific address, which SFA will inspect. You cannot hold the licence before you hold the premises, so sign a letter of intent conditional on SFA approval, submit the application, then sign the formal lease.
If the unit was never used for food preparation, check the change-of-use position with URA before committing: a change of use application carries a S$500 fee and can attract a land betterment charge.
3. Food safety training and premises compliance
Every food handler must complete the WSQ Food Safety Course Level 1 before handling food. The course is around S$150 before GST at list price and is substantially subsidised for eligible Singaporeans and permanent residents. Larger operations also appoint a trained food hygiene officer.
NEA requires a properly sized grease trap serviced by a licensed contractor, and expects your waste collection to run through a licensed collector. Get the grease trap position confirmed before you sign the lease; retrofitting one in the wrong part of a shophouse is expensive.
Halal certification through MUIS is optional but decisive for some catchments: S$159 for normal processing and S$340 for express, before GST, with roughly 40 to 60 days for a first application.
4. Alcohol licence, if you serve it
The Police Licensing and Regulatory Department issues liquor licences by class and hours. Published annual fees run from S$880 for Class 1A down to S$110 for Class 3A or 3B, with a temporary Class 5 licence at S$22 a day. Pick the class that matches the hours you will actually trade, not the widest one.
5. Lease, fit-out and kitchen
Rent is the decision you cannot undo. Suburban and HDB shop units generally sit well below prime retail on a per-square-foot basis, and the gap decides whether your model works at realistic covers. Model three units at three rent levels before signing, and get the reinstatement clause and rent-free fit-out period in writing.
A 40-seat café needs a back of house large enough for prep, dish and storage. Shrinking it to buy seats is the regret we hear most often, and it is the hardest thing to fix later.
6. Hiring, CPF and MOM quota
Register with CPF for an employer CSN before your first payroll; there is no fee. If you plan to hire migrant workers, note that the services sector dependency ratio caps them at 35 per cent of your total workforce, and that only SFA-licensed operators may employ them at all — so the licence and the hiring plan are linked.
Budget for CPF contributions, the skills development levy and, where applicable, foreign worker levies on top of gross wages, and treat training as a recurring cost given turnover in café work.
7. GST and InvoiceNow
GST registration is compulsory once taxable turnover exceeds S$1 million, and voluntary below that. IRAS is phasing in InvoiceNow, its Peppol-based e-invoicing regime: from 1 November 2025 for newly incorporated companies registering voluntarily, from 1 April 2026 for all new voluntary registrants, from 1 April 2028 for new compulsory registrants, and in later waves through 2029 to 2031 for existing GST-registered businesses by turnover. Check your own dates with IRAS rather than trusting a vendor's summary.
LOOP POS does not yet transmit through InvoiceNow — it is on our roadmap. If you will be in scope soon, ask every vendor you shortlist to show it working today.
8. Choosing a POS
The POS decides how your counter, kitchen, stock and reports behave every day. The honest 2026 shortlist in Singapore is Qashier (hardware-first terminal with payments in the box), Eats365 (modular, strong for full-service floors), StoreHub (retail and F&B in one) and LOOP POS (AI-native, runs on devices you already own, S$49 per outlet per month on Growth with a free plan for a single outlet that is a real plan, not a trial). LOOP POS is our own product — we are saying so plainly.
Ask every vendor the same four questions in writing: which payment rails are included rather than added on, whether InvoiceNow submission is live today, whether delivery orders arrive in the same queue as counter orders, and what the price becomes at outlet two. For LOOP POS in Singapore the honest answers are: PayNow is on our roadmap, InvoiceNow is on our roadmap, delivery ingestion is live in Vietnam only, and the price is per outlet rather than per device.
POS options for new openers — at a glance
| POS | Best for | Opening-day time-to-live | Free tier | Native payment rails | Multi-outlet ready |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LOOP POS | New openings wanting AI operations on existing devices | Same day | Yes — free for 1 outlet, then S$49/outlet/mo | Cards and SGQR via your own terminal; PayNow on our roadmap | Yes |
| Qashier | Single outlet wanting one terminal with payments in the box | 2–5 days | No | See vendor pricing page | Limited past 2 outlets |
| Eats365 | Full-service floors needing modular add-ons | 1–2 weeks | No | See vendor pricing page | Yes |
| StoreHub | Mixed retail and F&B | 1–2 weeks | No | See vendor pricing page | Yes |
9. Payments
Set up card acceptance with an acquirer and QR acceptance through SGQR, which unifies the QR schemes into one label at the counter. Ask for the complete rate card, including QR and e-wallet rates, before signing — the headline card rate is rarely the whole story.
10. Delivery platform listings
Deliveroo ceased operations in Singapore on 4 March 2026, so the delivery plan here is GrabFood and foodpanda. Start both applications during fit-out: each wants your ACRA details, bank account, licence and a photographed menu, and approval takes days rather than hours. Price delivery items to absorb commission rather than discovering the gap later.
11. Loyalty from day one
Three honest options: run loyalty inside your POS, run a dedicated loyalty product, or run nothing and accept that you will not know who came back. Decide before you open, because the opening cohort is the one you can never reconstruct.
PEKO is a loyalty and retention product from the same company as LOOP POS, running over WhatsApp alongside the till. It is one option among several; the test that matters is whether every visit ends up under one customer identity you can reach later.
12. What to watch in week one
Five numbers, every morning: covers split into counter and delivery, average ticket, your five best and five worst sellers, waste at close, and the hour the queue breaks. The first fortnight is when menu and roster mistakes are cheapest to fix.
Pick one operational target for week two before you open — shorten the peak queue, or cut the two slowest items — so the data has somewhere to go.
What it costs — estimates, not quotes
Every figure below is an estimated range for planning, not a quote. Official fees link to the authority that publishes them; the rest are market ranges. Checked September 16, 2026.
| Line item | Estimated range (S$) | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| ACRA name application + incorporation | 315 | Published ACRA fees (S$15 + S$300) |
| SFA Food Shop Licence | 195 per year | Published SFA fee |
| WSQ Food Safety Course Level 1 | ~150 per person before GST | Published course fee; subsidies apply for eligible staff |
| MUIS halal certification (optional) | 159 normal / 340 express | Published MUIS fees, before GST |
| Liquor licence (if serving alcohol) | 110–880 per year | Published Police Licensing fees by class |
| Renovation and fit-out | 120,000–300,000 | Estimate, Singapore market ranges |
| Kitchen and bar equipment | 40,000–90,000 | Estimate |
| Furniture | 15,000–40,000 | Estimate |
| POS and hardware | 2,000–8,000 | Estimate; software billed monthly on top |
| Rent deposit (3 months) | 20,000–60,000 | Estimate, varies sharply by location |
| Working capital (3–6 months) | 40,000–100,000 | Estimate |
| All-in, 30–60 seat café | 250,000–600,000 | Estimate — inheriting a fit-out lands far below this |
Government and course fees above come from the official pages linked in the Sources section. Every other range is a planning estimate drawn from Singapore industry cost breakdowns, not a quote, and not a figure we measured ourselves.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Signing the lease before SFA has given in-principle approval for the premises.
- Assuming a shop unit can be used for food preparation without checking change of use with URA.
- Hiring migrant staff before checking the services sector quota, then failing renewals.
- Planning around Deliveroo, which stopped operating in Singapore in March 2026.
- Leaving loyalty to month six, by which point the opening cohort is anonymous.
Frequently asked
Which POS should I choose for a new Singapore café?
Three credible options: Qashier if you want one terminal with payments built in, Eats365 if you run a full-service floor needing modular add-ons, and LOOP POS if you want AI-assisted operations on devices you already own, free for one outlet and S$49 per outlet per month after that. LOOP POS is our own product. If InvoiceNow submission matters to you now, pick a vendor that has it live — ours is on the roadmap.
How long does it take to open a café in Singapore?
Plan for roughly four to seven months. ACRA incorporation is same-day, the SFA Food Shop Licence follows an inspection of the finished premises, and fit-out is the variable that decides the rest.
How much does the SFA Food Shop Licence cost?
S$195 a year, applied for through GoBusiness Licensing and tied to a specific address. SFA inspects the premises, so make your lease conditional on approval.
Do all my staff need food safety training?
Yes. Every food handler must complete the WSQ Food Safety Course Level 1 before handling food. It lists at about S$150 before GST and is heavily subsidised for eligible Singaporeans and permanent residents.
When do I have to register for GST and use InvoiceNow?
GST registration is compulsory above S$1 million of taxable turnover. InvoiceNow phases in from 1 November 2025 for newly incorporated voluntary registrants, 1 April 2026 for all new voluntary registrants and 1 April 2028 for new compulsory registrants, with later waves for existing registrants by turnover. Confirm your own dates with IRAS.
Which delivery platforms can I list on in Singapore?
GrabFood and foodpanda. Deliveroo ceased its Singapore operations on 4 March 2026, so any guide still telling you to sign up with it is out of date.
How much money do I need before opening?
As a planning estimate, S$250,000 to S$600,000 all-in for a 30–60 seat café, including three to six months of working capital. These are market ranges, not quotes; taking over an existing food shop with a usable fit-out costs far less.
Does LOOP include loyalty?
LOOP handles operations. For AI-driven customer retention, PEKO is the sibling product from the same company — it runs alongside LOOP or alongside any other POS. Together they cover operations and retention.
Can PEKO handle inventory and staff scheduling?
No — PEKO is the retention layer. LOOP covers inventory, recipes, shifts, table management and kitchen display in the same ecosystem.
Sources
- ACRA — fee schedule — checked September 16, 2026
- SFA — Food Shop Licence — checked September 16, 2026
- SFA — food safety course for food handlers — checked September 16, 2026
- URA — change of use — checked September 16, 2026
- MUIS — halal certification — checked September 16, 2026
- Police Licensing — liquor licence — checked September 16, 2026
- CPF — employer registration — checked September 16, 2026
- MOM — services sector requirements — checked September 16, 2026
- IRAS — InvoiceNow requirement — checked September 16, 2026
- GrabFood Singapore — merchant sign-up — checked September 16, 2026
- foodpanda Singapore — partner sign-up — checked September 16, 2026
Disclosure: LOOP POS is our own product and PEKO is from the same company. Both are listed here as options alongside competitors, not as the only answer.
